HOW WE HANDLE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
Your information
When you visit the surgery we want you to feel able to discuss anything with your doctor that might relate to your health. This may include sexual matters, your relationships, drugs, drinking, your mental health, your job etc. You need to feel that anything you inform us of will remain absolutely confidential.
The General Medical Council, whose rules on confidentiality apply to all doctors in the UK, enforces our duty of confidentiality to all patients. The practice is also registered under the Data Protection Act 2018.
We take great care to ensure that no information you give us is passed on either inadvertently or through the deception of others. This would include other family members unless we have your written consent.
Why we collect information about you?
In the National Health Service we aim to provide you with the highest quality of health care. To do this we must keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.
The NHS in England uses patient information for different purposes and the main two are:
a: To provide direct care – To provide patients with the personal care and treatment they need.
b: For purposes beyond direct care – Where patients’ information is used alongside other patients’ information in statistics and research and analysis. This information is typically used to check that health and social care services are doing a good job; to provide the right services at the right time; and to support researchers in the development of new medicines and treatments.
How your information might be used
Sharing information for your direct care
Practice Staff
Doctors do not discuss their patients with reception staff, but staff may type letters, file incoming hospital post and results and carry out a host of other administrative tasks on behalf of your doctor. They are not allowed to access your notes for any other purpose. All our staff are highly trustworthy and professional in their attitude to the responsibility that patient confidentiality places on them. The practice can audit access to records to ensure records are not accessed inappropriately.
Summary Care Record
Summary Care Record (SCR) is an electronic record that gives healthcare staff faster, easier access to essential information about you anywhere in the country, so that you can be given safe treatment during an emergency or when your GP surgery is closed.
You can opt out if you do not want your information to be used in this way. For further information visit the NHS Summary Care Records website.
Sharing information for purposes beyond your direct care
Risk stratification
Risk stratification is an example of where your information may be used for your direct care or for purposes beyond your direct care.
Risk stratification is a process of identifying patients or groups of patients that are most likely to get a certain disease so that the right services can be provided to an individual or a population in general.
For example, “these patients are most likely to get diabetes in my GP practice, so I’m going to provide this care plan to those individuals” or “this number of patients is at risk of diabetes in this CCG, so I’m going to commission this service”.
Information to the Health Authority and other health organisations
Some information is sent electronically to the other parts of the NHS for administration and payment purposes. This can be statistical information that does not identify individuals or may include some personal details such as changes of address etc. in order to keep the practice list up to date. All NHS staff are bound by the same rules on data protection and confidentiality.
The practice is also requested by the NHS and Medical Research Council (MRC) to provide data for the clinical audit or research of certain diseases and conditions. This information will either be anonymous, so individuals cannot be identified or you will be asked for consent. You may be contacted to ask if you’re happy for your information to be used in this way. Your identifiable information will only be shared in this way where you have given your explicit consent.
Prescribing information is also requested to help compile statistics on how diseases are treated and the costs involved in treating some illnesses. All such information is anonymous; individual patients will not be recognisable from this information.
Request for access to health records
You have the right to see your own medical record, both hand written and entered onto the computer. Please complete the request in writing to the surgery. Copies of medical records are supplied as a pdf file where possible. It may be beneficial to contact the surgery to discuss this prior to requesting your notes. This can be done via our contact form.
Reports for other people
Sometimes you may need a report prepared by your doctor for someone else who is not involved in your care. This may be your employer, an insurance company or your solicitor. We will never release any information to any other party without your written consent. You have the right to see these reports before they are sent off. If you have any worries we recommend you ask to check them at the time.
What is Patient Online?
Patient Online allows you to access GP services from your computer, tablet or mobile phone, as well as through your local GP practice to:
- Book GP appointments online
- View a summary of your health records online
- Renew prescriptions online
How will Patient Online help me?
Online services will allow you to book and cancel appointments or request repeat prescriptions at a time that is convenient to you – day or night. It will help you to take greater control of your health and wellbeing by increasing online access to services. Evidence shows that patients who are informed and involved in their own care have better health outcomes and are less likely to be admitted to hospital.
How can I get access to my GP Record?
You will need to fill in a short form and bring proof of your identity into the GP surgery so that we can provide you with logon details and with a password.
At Begg Practice - St John's Hill Surgery we currently offer the online services below:
- Booking appointments
- Repeat prescriptions
- Access to GP records (currently summary information only)
Computer Security
All persons who can access your record on computer are given a unique password. Different grades of staff have different levels of access. Staff should only have access to those parts of the computer record that they need to do their job. An audit trail of who has used the computer is kept within the computer system with every login recorded and identified by the user’s password. All computers have anti-virus software loaded, which is regularly updated to protect your medical record.
Further Information
If you any questions about how the information on your medical record is used please contact the surgery.
Website Privacy Policy
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all individuals using this website.
This policy explains how we use any personal information we collect from you through this website.
Collection of personal information
You can access most of the pages on our website without giving us your personal information. However, you may choose to provide us with your personal information on some pages of the website by completing an on-line form.
By submitting your personal information, you consent to our use of the information as set out in this privacy policy.
Use of personal information
We shall use any personal information you give to us, in accordance with this policy, and with any additional statements appearing on forms used for submitting your personal information. We shall not disclose your personal information to any third parties without obtaining your prior consent unless we are required by law to do so. In particular:
We shall use your personal information to administer, and may respond to, your request.
We shall securely store the information you supply together with any response we may provide.
If you contact us regarding the website we may use your details to reply to you. If you make a comment or complaint about other aspects of the service we may use your details to investigate your comments.
Website privacy
This website uses https to ensure data is encrypted in transmission. This encryption, known as TLS encryption protocol, allows us to protect your privacy. You can usually verify that the page is encrypted by seeing a small lock symbol in the upper left corner of your browser and the website address is prefixed with https://.
Data storage
All data obtained by us is held and used in compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018.
Cookie Policy
Read our Cookie Policy.
Links
This website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties that run any other websites. Please refer to their own privacy policies for more information.
Access to your personal information
You have a right under the Data Protection Act 2018 to ask us to provide you with the information we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. If you would like to access a copy of your information, please contact the Practice Manager using the following contact us form.
